A country store smack in the center of the city, City Feed was founded in 2000 as a gathering place for urbanites to shop, swap stories, and feast locally. Senior Manager Morgan Ward, a veteran buyer for high-end specialty markets in Boston, devotes himself to making this shop a beacon of sustainability and local support. “I try to make decisions on behalf of people’s intentions,” he says. Showcasing humanely raised, nitrate-free meat is one of his passions. So is supporting local farmers.
Ward sources food that’s produced within 100 miles of Boston. To do this, he manages his inventory through Farm Fresh Rhode Island. This nonprofit links independent farmers and their inventories with markets in real time; it also employs at-risk youth in its kitchens. Even closer to home, City Feed helps fund Jamaica Plain’s Spontaneous Celebrations, a cultural organization that celebrates the neighborhood’s rich ethnic diversity through the arts.
On a day-to-day basis, the shop’s sandwich counter is the place to be. The counter itself was repurposed from the store’s original yellow-pine antique floor. Sidle up to it and order the cult favorite “Number Nine,” also called the Farmer’s Lunch Sandwich. It’s a baguette slathered with mustard, mayonnaise, Granny Smith apples, lettuce, and all-natural pickled green tomatoes, a City Feed signature that is also sold by the jar.
